Identifying and Advocating Best Practices in the Criminal Justice System. A Texas-Centric Examination of Current Conditions, Reform Initiatives, and Emerging Issues with a Special Emphasis on Capital Punishment.

Tuesday, 05 January 2010

Supreme Court Case on Prosecutorial Immunity Settles

The U.S. Supreme Court announced late Monday that it had dismissed an
important pending case over prosecutorial immunity after being alerted
that the dispute had been settled. The action stops in its tracks a
case that could have produced a landmark decision that many believed
would have reined in the longstanding tradition that prosecutors cannot
be held liable for their actions as prosecutors.

The case, Pottawattamie County v. McGhee and Harrington,
was brought by Curtis McGhee Jr. and Terry Harrington, who had been
found guilty in the 1977 murder of John Schweer, a retired police
officer in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The two, who spent 25 years in prison
before being freed in 2003, sued Iowa prosecutors for violating their
civil rights by falsifying evidence used against them before arrest and
at trial. They were released after being able to document the actions
taken by prosecutors to doctor evidence and influence testimony to
point the finger at them, even though there was another suspect.

As we reported here, former Solicitor General Paul Clement, now with the Washington office of Atlanta-based King & Spalding,
took on McGhee and Harrington as clients after the Supreme Court agreed
to hear the county's challenge of a lower court decision upholding
their suit. In oral arguments in November, it appeared Clement had gone
a long way toward weakening the argument in favor of strict immunity
for prosecutors, though the outcome was not entirely clear. Some
justices appeared concerned that prosecutors would become timid if they
had to worry about being sued for their actions, while other justices
seemed struck by the abuses perpetrated by the prosecutors in the case.

The US Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a case over whether
prosecutors who knowingly procure false testimony that leads to a
wrongful conviction can later be sued for damages.

Lawyers announced that the parties in the underlying lawsuit had agreed to end the case in a $12 million settlement.

The
two innocent men, Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee, had spent nearly
26 years in prison for a murder they didn’t commit. After the truth was
discovered and they were released, they sued the prosecutors in
Pottawattamie County, Iowa.

An investigation revealed that the
prosecutors helped assemble and present false testimony that led to
their convictions. Messrs. Harrington and McGhee had been sentenced to
life in prison at hard labor with no possibility of parole.

The
prosecutors fought the civil lawsuit, arguing that they were entitled
to absolute immunity from such litigation for actions taken at trial.

The high court heard oral argument in the case on November 4. The case is Pottawattamie County v. McGhee and Harrington.

Despite their claims of innocence, the two men were convicted before an all-white jury and sentenced to long prison terms.

Decades
later, they were able to obtain official files showing that police and
prosecutors Dave Richter and Joe Hrvol coaxed the witness to implicate
them, while ignoring evidence that pointed to the white suspect. The
sole witness against the two men recanted his testimony.

The
Iowa courts overturned their convictions five years ago. Harrington and
McGhee then sued the county, prosecutors and police in federal court
for violating their civil rights, alleging that the prosecutors
knowingly used false testimony to convict them.

The prosecutors said they still believed Harrington and McGhee were guilty.

In
the Supreme Court, a lawyer for the prosecutors agreed that police
could be sued for fabricating evidence, but not prosecutors, even if
they worked together.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said that was "a strange proposition."

Justice John Paul Stevens called it "perverse."

Facing a likely loss in the high court, the county moved to settle the case.

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The StandDown Texas Project

The StandDown Texas Project was organized in 2000 to advocate a moratorium on executions and a state-sponsored review of Texas' application of the death penalty.
To stand down is to go off duty temporarily, especially to review safety procedures.

Steve Hall

Project Director Steve Hall was chief of staff to the Attorney General of Texas from 1983-1991; he was an administrator of the Texas Resource Center from 1993-1995. He has worked for the U.S. Congress and several Texas legislators. Hall is a former journalist.